Steven D. Cuozzo (born January 17, 1950) is an American writer, newspaper editor, restaurant critic, real estate columnist, and op-ed contributor for the New York Post.
He and his brother, Joseph G. Cuozzo, were children of Lillian (1922 - 1970) and Joseph A. Cuozzo (1916 - 1996), a Brooklyn electrical parts factory worker, and lived at 137 Hull St.[2][3] In describing growing up in the Italian-Irish neighborhood of Ocean Hill near the J/Z line over Broadway,[4] he noted in 2009, "I recall stoop sitting with neighbors and a happy blur of maternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins living in the building next door.
[7] After graduating from Stony Brook University, Cuozzo began his first city job in 1972 as an administrative assistant at the Space for Innovative Development performing arts center.
"[8][9] On December 18, 1972, Cuozzo began working as a copy boy in the city room at 210 South Street at the New York Post.
"[14] In August 1977, the core of Cuozzo's childhood Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill was destroyed by looters and arsonists during the New York City blackout of 1977.
[7] Jane Hershey was a New York-based writer and editor who contributed to a variety of periodicals, including Good Housekeeping, Fodor's Travel Publications, and Hollywood Magazine.
[10] On a weekly basis, his job was to come up with a prize, which included a trip to Hawaii and "win breakfast with the baby elephant at the Bronx Zoo.
[11] Commenting in September 1981 on a widespread concern that the Post would close, Cuozzo noted, "We were seemingly on the brink of extinction about 12 times in a much more heart-stopping way than this has yet become.
[17] The book played on tennis analogies and suggested that couples behave as coordinated doubles teams—for instance, providing their spouses' business card at opportune times to help them acquire new clients or accounts.
[23] In October 1993, the Newspaper Guild labor union went on strike and Cuozzo was put in the position to help publish the paper with only editors and managers.
[25][26] In addition, throughout the book, he expresses his views, such as the Post "asserted the importance of human emotions in the affairs of the world" and the newspaper's "emphasis on individual accountability" instilled discipline in American society,[14] crediting the Post for capturing "the energy" of New York City and originating what he characterizes as the United States' positive trend towards tabloidization of the news.
"[28] He described former Post owner Abe Hirschfeld, who four years later would be convicted of soliciting murder,[29] as "a squat bundle of free-floating hostility.
"[30] In 2004, New Zealand-born Australian newspaper editor and journalist Frank Devine stated that the September 2003 book, The Murdoch Archipelago, drew extensively on Cuozzo's It's Alive!
[31] In October 1996, Cuozzo appeared on Think Tank, a discussion program that aired on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and was hosted by Ben Wattenberg.
"[32] In commenting on conventional journalism during the show, Cuozzo noted that an underlying assumption of its journalistic elitism is "that the public is incapable of making up its own mind or listening or applying any critical thinking to issues in an environment in which there are many voices being heard.
[10] In the first column, entitled Ross Ready To Set Sail on Columbus, Cuozzo interviewed real estate developer Stephen M.
[35] Cuozzo and the panel selected in their top 10, chefs including Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Nobu Matsuhisa, and Gray Kunz, as well as Christian Delouvrier, Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, and Alfred Portale.
"[16] In 2005, the Post stopped running classic reviews directed towards "eating one's way through a new place every week," which was part of a trend in United States newspapers at that time.